Legends Never Retire...but it is always hard to say Goodbye

It is always difficult to say Goodbye to Sports Icons. I had been a great fan of Steffi Graf all my childhood. So, influenced by her, that I liked to dress up like her, tie my hair up like her and I even took up tennis at school. My only regret would be that I could never play single-handed like her. I tried, but the racquet was too heavy for me at that age. I would never miss a Steffi Graf match and would not change my position superstitiously until she won the match. During some tough matches, I would sit with a string of beads and pretend they were prayer beads and would pray with all my heart until the match was done. When she announced her retirement, it was like the sky came down crashing on me. I will never forget what I felt that day. I watched her induction to the Hall of Fame with a heart full of emotions. 

On 16NOV2013, when Sachin Tendulkar signed off from International Cricket, I won't say it was the same but yes, I did have a heart full of emotions. His retirement speech was that made by a man full of humility and gratitude. I took a look back to see what he meant to all of us and realised that his presence  in cricket was so reassuring. I remember the times when my brother and I would come back from school/work and ask our mom/dad for the score and if it was a poor one, we would immediately ask- ' Is Tendulkar out already?' and when they said No, it gave us some kind of confidence and reassurance and hope that India might not lose. It might have been the case in many many Indian homes. It was observed on several occasions that when Sachin got out, the rest of the team collapsed like a house made with a pack of cards. It only meant one thing, he carried the responsibility of the entire team for a very big part of his career and the hopes of millions on his shoulders at a very young age and did so until his retirement. Since I have seen him play since my childhood and saw his position in the team with permanence, I find it hard to believe that he would not be seen playing International Cricket anymore. This being said, he must have had a very satisfying career with many records being broken and many new ones created, being a part of the winning World Cup Team and the IPL winning Mumbai Indians team, not to forget that he was also a part of the Test team when India was ranked no. 1.

All I can say is Thank You Sachin for everything you have done for this country on field and off-field. Thanks for giving your very best to the sport and the country each and every time you stepped on to the field.

I did not realise how big a fan I am of yours until you bid farewell to cricket. Your retirement is yet to sink in but I trust that whatever you do, it will be in the best interest of the country, the sport and also personally for you as well. I hope we still get to see you on TV close to the cricket field and also, wish you the very best in the new innings of your life. Farewell!

One Done, On to the Next One

Home is where the heart is. On 15NOV2012, I followed my sweetheart to Hyderabad to start a new life in a new Home, Sweet Home. As I complete one year in the new city and look back at the year that was, it has been a colourful one year. I have loved exploring Hyderabad this one year and a lot still remains to be explored. I have grown a lot in this one year, especially in my culinary ability being someone who just hated cooking to someone who cooks for relaxation and de-stressing. 

There are so many things that stood out for me in Hyderabad- the very broad roads, 'Numaish' , some of my shopping trips (though old city still remains to be explored), my job and new friends and acquaintances at work and have the pleasure of getting back in touch with the old ones.

When I first stepped on Hyderabad soil, nothing other than heat seemed very different in the city compared to Bangalore. I was still very 'Bangalored'. Since we arrived on an evening flight and were terribly hungry, we dropped our luggage off at home and headed to the Woodlands Restaurant. Now, Woodlands is a place one goes to when you are hungry and not for celebrations or treats or fine dining experience. Woodlands is being run by people of Karnataka and they have imported all of their staff from Karnataka...at least it seemed that way because almost all of them spoke in Kannada.

We seated ourselves in the A/C dining area. I did not really realise at that moment that I was not in Bangalore in the cool of the A/C and in a 'Kannadified' atmosphere. In my head, I was still in Bangalore. We ordered North-Indian thaali. It starts off with Tomato soup, pappad and Ras Malai. Once we were done with the soup, the main course thaali arrived. They had an assortment of curries. Mutter Paneer caught my eye...I started with Roti and Mutter Paneer and it was that moment....

.....that it struck me harshly and rudely, that I had arrived in Hyderabad. My tongue was slapped and punched with very spicy and strong chillies that no amount of water intake could help. I immediately started tearing up and perspiring. My husband who was quite used to the spicy food of the region could not understand what was wrong. He tasted the Mutter Paneer and it seemed quite okay to him. I ditched the Mutter Paneer and went on to the Mixed Veg curry and the gravy of an Eggplant dish. Each of them seemed to better the ability of the other in terms of setting my tongue on fire. I realised at that very moment, in that particular A/C dining area, in that 'Kannadified' atmosphere that I HAVE ARRIVED IN HYDERABAD. Fortunately, I had saved my Ras Malai for later and pacified my agitated taste buds with its creamy-milky sweetness. I took it as God's way of telling me 2 things-

- I had arrived in Hyderabad

- Ras Malai would come to my rescue so do not eat it as soon as it is served

At the end of the meal, ice-cream was served and I cannot think of any other time in life when I relished it more.

This is one of my first experiences in the city which I can never forget. In this one year that has gone by, I have still not been able to adapt to the extra spice. I tear up almost every other day,to the amusement of my colleagues especially, while eating especially the curries and salads (what??? you thought they can't be that spicy?? Well, come over...the spice route awaits you).

Having said all that I have, I love Bangalore a lot. Once you live in Bangalore, it is not easy to love to live in any other city. Though my sweetheart is in Hyderabad, my very own heart is still in Bangalore. I cannot say there is anything terribly wrong with Hyderabad. It is a fine city to live in and has its own way of functioning and is special in its own way. Slowly, I am learning to like Hyderabad but it can never replace my love for Bangalore as Bangalore has reserved a very special place in my heart for life. 

I hope to write (and remember to write) again sometime around this time of the year in 2014 and see if Hyderabad has made any progress in completely winning my heart over! Hopefully, some day I will also have a special place reserved for Hyderabad for the rest of my life. In the meantime, I am determined to enjoy the Hyderabad experience!

Voice of a Soldier's Soul

I had written this poem a few days back but could not find the time to post it here. It is an attempt at poetry after a very long time. The last time I wrote one was back in my High School days. Back then, I would write poems about anything and everything and they are highly confidential and personal. I just wanted to see if I still had it in me and if words would flow just as easily. It surely has a lot of flaws but hey, I am happy that I at least made an attempt after ages. I would love to improve and get better.
Please do share your feedback.

Voice of a Soldier's Soul

As my soul wanders through the skies,

I see the hills and vale through my soul's eyes,

Whereupon my soldier body lay covered in tricolour.

And weeping eyes, place on me a solitary flower.

I roam across my nation

for which I once had a vision

of progress, of development, of abundance.

But alas, it appears not to be.

My soul weeps in tears silent,

With scams and crimes, my country vibrant,

Where pledge of allegiance seems forgotten,

Where a soldier's death seems too common

And where money prevails over human.

Education and food is in abundance,

But means of reaching my people scarce

And from our neighbours, there is no peace.

Better technology- my heart does cheer

but my people still have so much to fear.

My soldier brothers and sisters always ready

To serve others who are needy,

To give their lives in service if the nation.

My wandering soul has but one question,

Is a soldier's sacrifice not so worthy?

Give me some cheer, O my country!!

My weary wandering soul yearns for rest,

Possible when my vision realised

And I see my country at its BEST.

                                                                                    - SR (Clamourous)

Precious Five

11APR2012 

It was a warm afternoon. News from the earthquake in Indonesia was flashing all over the place. Bangalore too experienced tremors on the day. I was at work with my colleagues when we felt the tremors which were not very brief. There were moments of indecision- what should we do- Run outside? Stay seated and pretend nothing happened? Should we call someone to help us face a possible calamity? There were a lot of discussions going on. There was news of a second one hitting us soon and warnings of tsunamis screaming out on any and every news station. While I participated in these discussions, for a micro second, all the important things to me in life flashed before my eyes. Mind does travel faster than light....and the frames of all that was important came at an unimaginable pace. There were plenty of things that went through my mind at that point in time..a billion important things but I have come to realize that the ones that I really remember after snapping out of the mental state of the time are the ones that are of utmost importance to me.

1.Family and Friends:

The first thing that occurred to me in that micro-second was my family and friends. One of my brothers is in the US. My mom at home, dad at work. My other brother- possibly at a client place. My many uncles and aunts and cousins and nieces and nephews scattered across the globe. I thought about all of them in that small fraction of time. I thought of my new to-be family members- Rakshit and the bit of his family that I knew then. My immediate family, Rakshit and his immediate family and my best friend Malabika  mean the world to me. I always associate joy and happy thoughts when I think of them but this time it was quite painful to think of not being around them.

2. Apple Gadgets:

I am yet to comprehend on why I thought of my Macbook Pro, iPhone and iPod (and also the next buy iPad) at a time like that. It could be that they are quite expensive and I worked very hard and saved a lot to make those purchases or possibly, subconsciously, I thought these are going to help me in difficult times post a natural disaster.

3. Work:

Some people say and like to believe that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth but this is not completely true. I would say I was pampered and doted upon by my family, especially my parents. My job helped me find myself, made me more independent in my ways, transformed me from being a quiet, shy person to a confident and kind of an outspoken person, not to mention financial independence that it brought with it. 

At that moment I also thought about the teams that I work closely with in India and also outside. They are like a second family to me as most of my waking hours are spent with them.

4. Collection of Books:

I am happy that I own a huge number of books. I am very fond of classics and works of fiction and own a lot of books which I assume are hard to find. It is a little difficult to imagine myself running out of a building with all of them when an earthquake strikes but I surely would love to grab as many as I can or as a part of my disaster facing stratagem, get Kindle so that there is only 1 little thing to run with.

5. Collection of Movies:

Comedy and classics (those which meet my definition of classic) are my favourite genres of movies. I have over a period of time accumulated a sizable collection of movies in multiple formats on multiple devices. It is not easy to build a collection of this nature as it involves a lot of looking about and watching out for some of those rare movies. These bring me a lot of cheer to me and I assume, this is most probably the reason why it occurred to me in this time of confusion and mild panic.

There were a lot of other things which I would consider as weird to have thought about but for some reason I did and I remember- a pot of Aloe Vera gel, Mexican green wave pizza from Domino's, Spicy tomato pasta (fussili) from Pizza Hut, my Parker pens, Lucky and Happiness diaries, my doctor's prescription for glasses, childhood photographs, Crocin, Imol, perfumes, trip to Bannerughatta National Park etc...

One way or the other, I realize that there are so many things that mean a lot to us and we take them for granted and realize how important they are to us only when we are threatened of losing them or after having lost them. For now, I would think these are the most important things to me...

The Comeback!

Back in 2005, blogging was one of my favorite hobbies. For some reason, I totally lost interest in it thereafter. I withdrew all my blogposts that were published. In 2012, I received the motivation from a special someone who writes really well and encourages me to do the same. I am back on a second stint as a blogger..Let us see if my motivation and interest can be sustained for long this time :)

D's Nightmare

This post is dedicated to my friend D who 2 months back went through a mentally traumatic experience in one of the retail chain stores in Bangalore. She was falsely alleged of shop-lifting but later the charges were withdrawn as there was no evidence (obviously!) and she was compensated for being harassed and traumatised and the store also apologized for their behaviour and the false accusation. It has taken both of us a lot of courage to post this. I have discussed this with her a lot and edited and re-edited many times so as to guard her identity and also of the store's which until this incident I personally thought was one of the best places to shop. Big hearted that she is, D had given them her word to not reveal their name. I hope no one has to go through what she did, but should you face false accusations of shop-lifting, I hope the below Dos and Don'ts will help you.

DO

• Cooperate with the store staff. They are just doing their jobs. Let them check things your belongings a 100 times if they want. However, please insist on being present while they check, you do not want them to plant some evidence against you.
• Reply to their questions appropriately. If they are asking a Yes/No question, answer them in Yes/No. It would look like you are doubting yourself when you are actually not if you do not answer appropriately.
• Insist on checking their evidence that they are citing to have against you.
• Stay calm.
• Declare items just as you enter the store to the security , especially clothes and certain accessories if you are carrying them in your bags in a packed state, or leave them at the baggage counter. If you must absolutely carry it in, it is better to keep the store staff informed.
• Demand for a compensation for the harassment when the matter is resolved. I am not sure if they are obliged to compensate but do not suffer all by yourself. Sometimes it helps if you give them a taste of their own medicine. :)

DON'T

• Panic.
• Get intimidated/ pressurized by the number of store staff surrounding you, the tone and volume (both sound and content) in which they are talking.
• Sign a declaration under pressure that says you have shop-lifted when you have not. It could cause serious problems for you especially if you have to travel abroad. Years back. I had to travel to Taiwan and the visa form back then had a specific question pertaining to shop lifting. Many countries may not verify the details in the visa form before issuing it but I do know many countries who perform a thorough due diligence before issuing visa. So don't get yourself into a bigger mess just to end things by signing the declaration.
• Let the store staff dominate over you. If you need to make calls for help, don’t let them prevent you
• Hesitate to inform them that you could also take them to the consumer court.
• Be in a hurry to resolve the matter in 10mins just to get out of the store. Your self-respect and reputation carefully built over years is more important than any other appointment.

This incident still bothers D. It was a very demoralizing experience for her. She is making a conscious effort to put this incident behind her. I hope and pray that time will heal everything. 

Here is another link that might help you. May or may not not be relevant in India but it surely gives some very useful information.

PS: If you can think of any other Dos or Don’t please DO share, I will update the post. I hope it will help someone someday. Please do not think such things will never happen with you. I know D is reading this- I hope I have kept my word in terms of safe-guarding identities.

The Js and Ws of WFH

I think I am a privileged one, for I am one of the very few people who might have been exposed to most forms of employment other than self-employment (which might also be on the cards sometime in future-who knows?!!).  My career (so far) in brief:

• Started off my career as a part time employee
• Moved to another company and worked on a contract at their office full-time
• Absorbed in the same company’s work-force on a full-time basis
• Moved to another company and worked on a full time basis for years
• Due to some situations, worked on a contract on a full-time basis from home in a city that is very very new to me
• Switched to another company on a full time basis and work from office

Each type of employment had its own advantages and disadvantages but most of my early career seems so distant now.  Of course, things have changed a lot since the time I took up my first job. Until about 2 months back, I was working from home for about 6 months.  It might seem exciting /thrilling/ dream-come-true to many. Not many are fans of the stress of driving to work and back home in heavy traffic (especially the Bangalore one) and many are fans of nice hot home cooked meals. It also excites many as they feel they can make a lot of time for themselves if they can save on the commuting time to and back from office. When I informed a few people that I was close to about my WFH, they were envious of me. Some even offered to swap jobs (like that is going to happen!).  I had worked from home (WFH) before on and off when I needed to but that was not on a daily basis. It used to be a welcome change for both me and my family. However, the situation is not so peachy when you have to do it for an extended period of time. Through this blog post, I just wanted to share some of my experiences so that anyone who plans on taking up WFH, can have some insight into it. This blog post lists some of the Joys (Js) and Woes (Ws) of WFH (working/work/worked (you'll have to use it in context of the sentence(:)) from home).

So, lets get started:

Js:

• You do not have the mad rush getting things ready and ensuring you have not forgotten xyz in the mornings
• Already mentioned before- no maddening traffic jams to face, no irky drivers, no haggling with auto wallahs
• Commuting time saved
• You can work in your PJs
• You can turn on the TV while working
• You can listen to music aloud as opposed to using earphones in office
• Nice hot Ghar ka Khaana (home cooked meal) which helps you in maintaining your weight
• Refrigerator is not too far away for ice-cream and snacking
• You can sit in any position of your choice while working, some days, I would lie down and work, some days sit on the chair, some days (especially the very warm ones) on the floor- the choices are just too many
• You can wait for the LPG delivery without fear of losing a cylinder and waiting for it on some other day
• You are the king/ queen of the place

(I am sure you can think of a 100 other Js.)

Ws:

• You might be the king/queen of the place, but you will be one without any subjects, totally cut-off from the rest of the world. No one other than family to discuss matters and learn from the experiences
• Technical issues- WFH can be quite stressful as well. If you have IT issues and the helpdesk is not located in the same city. Not to mention long periods of power outage. Your invertor support may run out or your internet might still not work.
• Approaching people- At work you could probably walk to a person’s desk and talk about something urgent but while WFH, you are dependent on phone and instant messaging services. Sometimes, the person you are trying to contact may not hear the phone ring (see what ear phones in offices could do to you) or may be shown as Away and it could leave you clueless on how to get in touch with this person- you would have to leave a message with 10 others to inform the person that you are looking for him/her. It is easier to locate people when you are physically situated close to them
• The ‘feel’ factor at office is often missing- you may not feel the stress, not feel the jubilation and celebration in the air while WFH which contribute a lot towards motivation and performance at least for a person like me. Those who know me well, know how fond of pulse checks I am, WFH just made it so difficult.
• I earned a great deal of appreciation for all the facilities provided to us by office to make work very smooth- be it printers, scanners, important stationery, help with filing taxes or just the courier services provided. Though I had all of these at home, I realized their value only while WFH.
• Distractions: These are our biggest attractions. It could be anything from a ring of the doorbell to IPL to ‘is it raining??- I put my clothes out to dry’…the list is endless. Though office life also comes with it is own set of distractions, I personally found the ones at home more prolonged.
• Boredom: When you are all alone working at home without anyone else to interact with and nothing but just work to do days, weeks and months together, it can get to you. It is almost like you are in a solitary confinement

(Surely there could be more Ws too but these were the major ones for me.)

If you noticed, the Ws were more elaborate than the Js. It could be because the Ws weighed me down a lot. Being in a new city, having no friends to speak to in person (atleast not in the vicinity), and not being aware of the places that hold your interests to visit every time you feel bored and having the initial dependency on your family (being very very independent in the city I lived before), made it more difficult for me to enjoy the WFH thoroughly.  My verdict from the experience I have had- WFH is a good thing if you can do it once in a while or when you need to (for some it could still be a daily basis- if there is a need to pick up your kids from some place during the regular work hours, for example). For the policy-makers in companies- please do include WFH in your policies. It is a non-monetary benefit for employees. For everything else, my vote would definitely be with working from office. 

A glimpse of my workstation from my last workplace (prior to the current one).There is a picture of a castle I drew and a lovely picture of cherry blossoms sent by a Japanese colleague. Some other knick-knacks- all presents.

Another view of my workstation. Notably, you can see the gift wrap from secret Santa and also packaging from Flipkart. It was a shipment of DVDs and books for my Christmas vacation and some coffee mugs carrying routine office stationery and some more  knick-knacks.

A picture of my home office cum study. Shared it with R.